Jon Henke highlights an article by Mark McKinnon, using it to talk about how President Obama has "dropped the 'change' charade." Henke's principal evidence is that Obama kept the office of political affairs in the White House:I measure the seriousness of a politician by how willing they are to work against their own interests to enact good policy. It is a rarity. As McKinnon points out, Obama's unwillingness to close the political shop - to elevate governance above politics - is a sign that he'll probably be an effective advocate of his policies....but he certainly wasn't serious when he wrote "it's not enough to just change the players. We have to change the game."Sigh. It's weird to read Henke, a political consultant, complain that a politician might consult people about politics, especially linking McKinnon's piece, which is complimentary of Obama's political efforts. And it's embarrassing that Henke would take the line he quotes from Obama out of context -- Obama is arguing in favor of stronger conflict of interest rules and an independent ethics watchdog for Congress, not that advisers to previous administrations shouldn't be able to join his staff, or that politics has no place in a politician's office. (As a sidenote, the problem with Karl Rove was never that President Bush had political advisers. It was that political advisers were doing all the policymaking, and from time to time doing things like firing U.S. Attorneys. That isn't a problem in the current White House.)But the debate about the political office has been had before. Obama has long explained that his political vision is one of organizing -- that is, political work -- that leads to policy change. The change that Obama ran on is the new foreign policy he promotes, the universal health care bill he's trying to pass, and the financial regulations he's trying to reform. All of that requires politicking. This is just concern-trolling on Henke's part, but I'm curious what he thinks would have happened if Obama had foolishly chosen to scuttle the political office in the White House. How would that have helped him enact the agenda he promised voters? No doubt Republicans, seeing that move, would have lined up to work with him on the issues.Incidentally, the other good reason to have a political office -- besides the fact that it helps a president pursue his agenda -- is that it is good for democracy. It keeps the president in touch with his constituents and his electoral coalition. A world where politicians don't think about politics isn't a democracy, it's a technocracy. While sometimes I think it would be nice if soulless bureaucrats just consulted science to make appropriate politics, at the end of the day that's not a vision where the people can hold their government accountable. In the American system, we meld together policymaking with politicking and hope for the best. Sometimes, we get it.
-- Tim Fernholz
